Today is my birthday! To celebrate my birthday I’m going to list 24 random facts about me in no particular order.

1. I’m left-handed! Every day after I work, I notice my left pinky finger is dark blue or black because I drag my hand as I write.
2. Halloween is my all-time favorite “holiday”.
3. Smoking is the one trait I find completely unattractive in a romantic partner.
4. My biggest insecurity growing up was tied between my uneven eyebrows and my big cheeks.
5. I played the Alto Saxophone in high school and for a full year in college.
6. I also used an Alto Saxophone in a D&D campaign as a weapon
7. The first comic I remember reading was Calvin & Hobbes.
8. I cannot resist Double Stuff Oreos.
9. My favorite recipe to make is garlic shrimp.
10. My patronus would be a cat.
11. I’m a Hufflepuff.
12. I have been Figure Skating since I was 6.
13. I hate rollercoasters.
14. I believe in ghosts, but I don’t have any ghost stories to share.
15. I’m incredibly clumsy. For example, I ran into a tree while playing football with friends sprained my ankle getting into my car, and fell off a landing backward while trick-or-treating with friends
16. My favorite arcade game is Dig Dug.
17. I used to be in dance in high school and I went to a tennis camp once in middle school. I am not a great dancer nor am I a great tennis player.
18. Fuck is my favorite swear word.
19. My Subaru is named Ripley Rey. Alien is one of my mom’s favorite film franchises and I bought my Subaru after The Force Awakens was released.
20. My Favorite Doctor is Christopher Eccleston
21. I love cereal and I could eat cereal for breakfast lunch or dinner.
22. I can’t snap or whistle.
23. I have never owned a dog.
24. It took me an hour to come up with #24 fun facts about myself 😀

My social media links are listed below. Thanks for reading my blog and I’m looking forward to another great year for blog posts.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/bizarrebrunette/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bizzarebrunette

Instagram: @bizarrebrunette0117

This is the second CONvergence-themed blog post I wanted to write because this was the first year I rented a cosplay to wear. I went to CONvergence dressed as Wonder Woman except if Wonder Woman was a Viking. I wanted to share my experience of renting a cosplay in case any of you might be curious as to how to go about it.

To start off, I absolutely hate sewing or any crafting involving clothing. I will never make another cosplay again. A couple years ago, I made a Sailor Neptune cosplay that ended up going terribly. Apparently, I messed up the design and we had to redo a lot of it because I didn’t know what I was doing. With that experience under my belt, I basically gave up ever wanting to create my own cosplay.

There’s a Facebook page called “CONvergence Connections” where you can post about anything related to the convention. Someone had posted saying they had pre-made cosplays to rent. I was 100% on board. There were Disney princess cosplays, Renaissance-themed cosplays, and of course the Wonder Woman one I chose. The person I met with was friendly and suggested ways I could do my hair or my makeup to make the cosplay more accurate.

I was overjoyed with how my whole look turned out. A couple people came up to me wanting a picture with my cosplay and I received a ton of compliments. Renting this cosplay was extremely affordable. I paid $25 bucks to rent the entire outfit with accessories for 4 days. This is much cheaper for me versus having to buy all the materials myself.

If you aren’t into sewing or crafting, this can be an affordable way to have an accurate cosplay for a convention. I would 100% rent a cosplay again especially because my next convention will be in September of this year. Let me know if you have ever rented a cosplay, did you have a great experience? Let me know in the comments section below.

This past weekend I attended CONvergence for the 5th year. Usually, I plan different blog posts around my time at this convention because it’s honestly my favorite con I attend. Each CONvergence is special for me because it’s a chance to see friends I don’t see that often. This is my first year as a panelist as I appeared on the DC Comics / Justice League discussion panel!

Two weeks before CONvergence. you can sign up for panels that seem interesting to you. I only picked panels with topics I felt passionate about and I could talk about that topic for an hour. There were a couple I wanted to be on that I didn’t get picked for, but I was sent an email a week later from our moderator alerting me that I had been chosen to appear on the panel. He had sent me an email asking what topics to talk about for this panel.

Thursday came around and I walked into the room where my panel would be. I wasn’t sure how many people would be attending since the timing of my panel also coincided with a larger show on the main stage. I think we had about 30? ish. people came to see our panel including a couple friends of mine. As we waited for the panel to start, I found out one of the panelists wrote articles at Twin Cities Geek and he complimented the articles I wrote which was kind of neat.

The clock turns to 8:30 PM and I see our moderator hasn’t shown up. The moderator at a panel is responsible for keeping the panelists on a topic so we aren’t rambling about something unrelated. The moderator didn’t show up to the panel at all along with another panelist. Me and my two other panelists had to lead the entire panel without any prep. I will say I think we did a great job at keeping time, but also entertaining the audience by asking questions and getting their commentary.

Overall being a panelist was a really fun experience! It was slightly nerve-wracking before the panel began and my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest, but I felt energized after I had talked. If you have a chance to be on a panel, you should definitely apply! This CONvergence was certainly a memorable convention and of course, I’m already counting down the days till next year.

Until this weekend, I had never been involved in Pride. Usually, I always had something going on the same weekend as Pride. Fortunately, I was able to attend this year and I wasn’t quite sure what I was expecting. I had a blast being a part of a vibrant community in the heart of the Twin Cities.

I arrived at Loring Park on Saturday hoping to volunteer but I couldn’t find the volunteer booth. Instead, I walked around looking at all the booths and photo opportunities. My friend joined me a half hour later to take pictures at the various photo ops. Target had a #TakePride statue you could get a picture with plus a rainbow confetti booth. I had to brush out all the confetti and I still found pieces in my hair hours later.

One thing I loved about Pride was how comfortable everyone was. I saw people wearing their hair a certain way or wearing a really cool outfit. I also saw individuals with their identity’s flag strapped as a cape. I didn’t know the color of all the flags so I had to look up what flag was linked to what identity, but there were more flags I didn’t even know existed.

Everyone deserves the right to love who they love and dress in ways that make them feel comfortable and to be addressed by the right pronouns that match their identity. If there is a Pride event in your city, I can’t stress enough how important it is for you to show your support. Allies are needed to continue this fight against hatred. I would attend Pride again next year if I’m free because it’s such a fun and uplifting place to be.

It seems that Solo: A Star Wars Story movie had a lot of drama behind the scenes. This includes firing the original directors and hiring an acting coach for Alden Ehrenreich. In the second link, Alden does address the acting coach rumors and says, “It was blown way out of proportion.” Spontaneously my friend bought tickets for me and the boyfriend to attend the showing yesterday. I must admit, it’s not my favorite Star Wars movie, but it’s much better than I was anticipating.

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT 😀

Han Solo’s story begins on the planet of Corellia which is a horrendous planet. Solo (played by Alden Ehrenreich) is attempting to leave with his lover Qi’ra (played by Emilia Clarke) when he escapes and unfortunately, Qi’ra does not. Flash forward three years and Han is kicked out of the Imperial Academy and is connected with Chewie, Tobias Beckett (played by Woody Harrelson), and Qi’ra who he hasn’t seen in years. Of course, Lando (played by Donald Glover) is introduced and basically, the group of them fly the Millennium Falcon completing a bounty for Dryden Vos (played by Paul Bettany) who leads the Crimson Dawn criminal syndicate.

As far as Alden’s portrayal of Han Solo, I personally didn’t mind it. I thought Alden was dominant, feisty, and sarcastic which makes up Han Solo. I think with all of the hype for this movie, I believe Alden delivered.

I was skeptical about the casting of Woody Harrelson. He’s not a bad actor, but usually, the Star Wars franchise doesn’t include “huge actors”. I was afraid by watching the movie I would get distracted by Woody because of his notable roles. That wasn’t the case. I enjoyed his character and he teaches Han the crucial lesson of “Don’t Trust Anyone”.

If you’re still reading, there will be a MAJOR spoiler in the following paragraphs. Please stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie.

One of the biggest reactions to this movie is a surprise cameo. Qi’ra has just killed Vos and you see her steal his ring. She plugs it into this desk and is talking to Vos’s boss. I’m assuming this is going to be Supreme Leader Snoke maybe? It would help with developing his backstory as a villain. Instead, the cameo is none other than. . . Darth Maul!!!!

Darth Maul is a terrifying villain and it’s a shame he was killed so early on in The Phantom Menace. I know that Maul exists in Star Wars comics, I even read a Darth Maul book in the extended universe. I just wasn’t expecting him to appear in the movie. Literally, my mouth dropped and was open for his entire scene. I’m still shocked.

My biggest complaint thus far with the film is that Thandiwe Newton’s character dies in the first 20 minutes. What’s the point of even bringing her on board for the movie if you kill her so quickly? Seems silly to me.

Solo: A Star Wars Story was not a train wreck which is a nice surprise. The movie may have its flaws, but it’s ultimately a fun movie to see in the theater. I’m interested to see how things pan out in future movies, especially with the fun cameo I mentioned a couple paragraphs above. I’m always interested to hear what readers have to say, so leave a comment below. Please also be respectful of spoilers as it is the opening weekend for the movie.

This past week I was in Boston for a family vacation with my mom, brother, and the boyfriend. We drove all 22 hours to get there and 22 hours back. In fact this past Thursday we drove 17.5 hours in one day which I don’t recommend. This trip to Boston is special to me because out of all the places I have visited, Boston is the one city I would love to move to. I’m going to share some pictures of my adventure along with why I adored Boston.

Sunday, May 13th

Technically we arrived in Boston on Saturday night at around 8:00 PM. After drinking a pint at a restaurant downtown, we decided to walk around downtown Boston near the Boston Commons. Boston Commons is Boston’s version of Central Park in NYC. Right on Boylston Street is this Edgar Allen Poe statue. There’s his raven and on the back of the raven is a heart from the “Tell-Tale Heart” short story. I’m a huge fan of Gothic literature so I did indeed take a selfie with Edgar Allen Poe.

On Sunday, May 13th, me and my family did some more exploring. After walking through the Boston Commons in daylight, we walked to Beacon Hill. This neighborhood is so serene and architecturally stunning. Every building has a New England feel to it. My dream house would probably be somewhere in this neighborhood.

After exploring Beacon Hill, we headed over to Quincy Market. Quincy Market is an indoor Farmer’s market with a variety of different restaurants. All the food smelled so good.

My coworker recommended to me that we explore the North End of Boston. Paul Revere’s house and statue are located here. The North End of Boston is also well known as being the Italian district with many different Italian restaurants to choose from. I was surprised walking around this area how many restaurants there were! We passed at least ten different restaurants before settling on the one we picked. There was a balcony with some flowers to provide a nice ambiance. I ordered butternut squash ravioli and it was delicious. Sunday was also Mother’s Day so the boyfriend snapped a picture of me and my mom enjoying our wine. Like mother like daughter, right?  

This is the Boston skyline from Boston Commons. As you can see, we lucked out with how gorgeous the weather was. It was sunny which is something I longed for after surviving yet another Minnesota winter.

Monday, May 14th

The bookworm in me was thrilled to see that there was an outdoor bookshop in downtown Boston. Brattle Books is one of America’s oldest bookstores in the country <  I didn’t know this while we were there. If I’m ever near Boston again, I will stop here for more books.

Boston is a city known for all of the US history. We stopped by the Boston Tea Party Museum (which I didn’t pay to tour) along with the U.S.S Constitution. This naval ship shown in the picture below is the oldest ship still in the water. The boyfriend was really excited to see this in person. However, the museum was actually closed on Monday which stinks, so we could only see this from the outside.

The view from the Boston Harbor is breathtaking. You can see the whole city in its entirety and look at how blue the water looks. This picture is probably my favorite picture I took on this trip because it demonstrates how beautiful Boston is.

Typical couple picture in front of the Boston skyline because why not?

Me and my mom are on the same page with our love of Boston. As you can see she’s wearing a Patriots long-sleeve shirt.

Tuesday, May 15th

At my mom’s request, we walked from our hotel all the way to Fenway Park. If there’s any sport that I truly love to watch, it’s baseball. When I think of an ideal summer day it would include watching the Minnesota Twins at Target field with a beer in my hand and socializing with friends. Fenway Park is a really nice baseball stadium and I like how many restaurants surround this field. Unfortunately, we were unable to see a baseball game, but that’s on my bucket list for my next trip to this city.

Our final activity was to see the Skywalk Observatory. It’s located near this upscale hotel and you have to pay $20 to go up there, but it’s worth it. You get an incredible view of the entire city. It’s also not too packed up there so you have room to walk around and take plenty of pictures. This was another tourist activity I recommend doing while visiting Boston.

Overall, Boston is my favorite trip I have taken so far. Another thing I learned from this trip is that this was a long drive. 22 hours is a long drive one way. I’m not sure if I would want to do another road trip that long of a distance again. I found myself growing impatient and slightly uncomfortable from sitting in the car for many hours. I’m proud to say that I drove all the way out there. It’s a cool achievement.

Do you live in Boston? I would love to know what other cool things I missed out on. Leave a comment below!

So you want to go on a road trip? I prefer driving versus flying unless, of course, I’m traveling to another continent. In less than two weeks, my family & the boyfriend are driving all the way to Boston and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I find with driving you can experience so much more of what the U.S. has to offer versus flying past all of the cute small towns or lush forests along the way. I wanted to give a couple road trip tips I learned to help create a smooth driving experience with friends or family.

Dress Comfortably for the Drive

I never drive in jeans because I want to be comfy if I have to be in the car for 10+ hours. I personally love driving in activewear because it’s soft and doesn’t cling to you in hot weather. Activewear is the way to go for driving long distances. Also wearing sneakers versus flip-flops is a must! It’s unsafe to drive in flip-flops because it doubles the amount of time to move your foot from the accelerator to the brake. Please wear sneakers 🙂

Pack Sunglasses or a Hat to Protect your Eyes

^^^ This will make your road trip pictures look better if you’re not squinting against the sun.

Plan out your trip, but leave room for spontaneity

Figure out museums, parks, and other attractions you must visit, but leave some room on the road trip for stops along the way. When I was driving through Illinois to get to Kentucky, we found the city with the largest Superman statue + museum. There was a sign alerting us to it so we pulled off and took many photos outside the museum and with the statue. It makes the road trip more memorable if there are stops that you weren’t originally planning for.

Have an emergency fund.

Include at least $400 for an extra hotel room, car repairs, or medical emergencies. In June 2015, me and my friend drove to a music festival in Michigan. When we were pulling into the campgrounds, my car shut off and wouldn’t turn on. We were able to gather at least ten people to push my car off to the side so I could call for a tow. This event unfortunately put a damper on our vacation because we weren’t sure how to get home and we didn’t have the $$$ for major car repairs. Thankfully it all worked out, but it could have been much worse.

Set a budget!!

How much will you spend in a day? How much are you planning for the trip? This is crucial to ensure that traveling doesn’t break the bank. Also when you think of purchasing a souvenir, actually ask yourself “Do I really need this?” Sometimes if we truly evaluate our purchases before impulsively pulling out our credit card, we can make the right decision and not regret it later.

I hope these tips are helpful, but ultimately you will come up with your own road trip tips when you experience the pleasure of driving from point A to point B. Also if you’re from the East Coast please give me recommendations of things to see. I have never been out to this part of the U.S. so I need all the help I can get.

I haven’t been writing regular posts because I have been feeling… uninspired. I haven’t been on any great trips or read any super amazing books so it had been days since I felt energized enough to write a post. One great thing happened to me this week I wanted to share and it has to do with my personal training experience at the gym I exercise at. After doing an In-Body machine *which calculates your muscle & body fat* I gained a pound of muscle. How cool is that!? All the hard work I put into my sessions has literally left me feeling stronger.

I talked about why I decided to hire a personal trainer in that blog post so I won’t go through that here. For me, my goal is to put on more muscle mass because muscle is so important since it can deteriorate as we age if we don’t use it. I would like to decrease my body fat, but I’m not necessarily ready to be super strict with myself. For example, if I go out to a happy hour with friends, I will have one drink but try not to exceed two. My body fat went up .2 which I’m not too concerned with. I carry about 53 lbs. of body fat which you might think is a lot, but not really. I love my curves! I don’t want to be skinny because I like having some body fat on my frame. I would like to see this number decrease, but it’s not my main concern.

I can tell I’m getting stronger based on how I complete the workouts. Before this, I couldn’t do a push-up on my toes. Now, I can do multiple push-ups in a row on my toes and go farther down into the push-up. I have upped my weight in dumbbells doing 20 lbs. for a shoulder press. Also my stamina! I feel I have more energy to go along with my day which means I’m decreasing the amount of coffee I drink and increasing my water intake.

Overall if you have been exercising and haven’t been seeing results, hire a coach or personal trainer. Getting toned is tough to do on your own, so allow someone to help assist you in getting the results you need.

We talk about physical and mental health quite frequently in society, but what about financial health? Financial health describes what your financial state is. This includes emergency savings, and retirement along with how much disposable income you have. Disposable income is important because to fuel the economy we need to purchase stuff. I wanted to share a couple things I’m doing to help me out financially.

Creating a Travel Savings Account

My financial adviser suggested doing this to help pay for travel without digging into my “emergency savings.” Plus if I know my money is directly going to fund my next trip, it gets me more excited to stay in if I know I could fly somewhere new in the next couple of months. I’m using Ally and I opened a high-yielding savings account to help accrue more interest. I’m looking forward to seeing this account grow and which trips I can personally fund out of this account.

Make all minimum payments on credit card debt

Before, I was throwing as much money as I possibly could pay my credit card debt which led to me draining my checking account too easily. Instead, I will be putting 15-20 dollars from each paycheck to my credit card. I narrowed down my credit card debt to around $100 which means I’m so close to paying it off.

Put anywhere between 10 – 20% in the emergency savings

I tried putting 20% of my paychecks in savings and find that’s not working with all of my bills I have to pay + having some discretionary funds to buy comics/books, go shopping, or go out to eat. I’m playing around with how much to put in my savings so that I still have some leftover fun money as well.

Create a Budget

I used Microsoft Excel to lay out all my bills for each month. This keeps me organized and helped me cut some expenses I didn’t need. For example, I dropped off some of the virtual coaching I had been doing so this left me with an extra $80 a month. I also forgot about some of the extra random bills like car tabs once a year and my Xbox Live yearly subscription. This budget has helped me immensely into becoming organized with my paychecks.

I’m always looking for ways to save money and be financially smarter. So leave a comment below if you have any other tips/tricks with money.

Happy Easter! Easter has never been a big holiday in my family, so me and the boyfriend decided to drive to Milwaukee to spend this holiday with his family. It’s nice to get out of my regular routine every now and then. Spring is right around the corner hopefully, though when I look outside I still see brown grass with dirty snow piles everywhere. Let’s recap the month of March:

Increase my Roth IRA deposit from $50 to $100 FAIL *ish* 

Last month I made an appointment to meet with a financial adviser from Thrivent about my finances and spending. I learned a lot about how to save for my future. Instead of bumping my Roth IRA, I’m more focused on having more money in my emergency savings. My adviser calculated I was $1000 short of what I should have in that account… yikes. I chose to keep my Roth IRA at $50 a month until I reach my savings goal. If you have never made an appointment to meet with a financial adviser, I highly recommend it.

Move at least $100 from each paycheck to Savings PASS 

I also moved my federal refund from my taxes into my savings as well. Saving money has never been difficult for me.

Watch Season #2 of Jessica Jones PASS 

I even wrote my review under my Bizarre Brunette Binges section, check it out if you haven’t already: Jessica Jones Review

Catch up on my Comics Pile PASS 

I finished Moonstruck Issues #3 – #5. I still have Saga and Paper Girls to read, but I did read a lot more comics this month.

Finish Lego Marvel Superheroes 100% PASS 

I unlocked all the achievements besides the 100% achievement. I know what you’re thinking, technically I didn’t meet my goal, right? I realize there are many video games out there for me to play, there’s not enough time to 100% every single game. I collected all the achievements I wanted to, but now I’m playing Uncharted Drake’s Fortune. 

My goals for the month of April:

Plan out my Boston Trip with family.

In May, me and my family are driving out to Boston! I’m pumped about it because I love road trips and I haven’t been to the East Coast before. We haven’t really planned a whole lot of it yet.

Create a Travel Savings account

This has been on my mind for a while, but I want to create a new savings account specifically for travel. I don’t want to dip into my emergency savings to pay for something extra. I’m thinking of going to Ally because they have higher-yielding savings accounts versus other typical banks.

Finish Uncharted Drake’s Fortune & Start Uncharted #2 Among Thieves

A couple months ago I bought the three games remastered on one disc. When I bought my PS4 back in November, I knew I wanted to play The Last of Us & Uncharted because they were huge titles on the play station.

Visit One Brewery I Have Never Been To Before

I don’t drink often, but if I do it’s usually a beer at a brewery. Breweries are chill places to have a pint and a genuine conversation with friends. Minneapolis / St. Paul has way too many breweries to count, but I want to visit one I haven’t been to before.